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The post-election property market bounce continued last weekend, according to Raine & Horne, highlighted by the sale under the hammer of an entry-level, one-bedroom apartment in North Sydney for $709,000.
Angus Raine, executive chairman at Raine & Horne, said things are picking up.
“Many of the offices I have spoken to or visited over the last two weeks are reporting their phones started ringing again on the Monday morning after the election,” he said.
“This underlines once again that consumers don’t like uncertainty.”
The North Sydney one-bedroom apartment attracted 17 registered bidders, said selling agent Todd Houghton, which drove the price above expectation.
“The property had a price guide of $650,000 to $700,000,” Mr Houghton said.
“Only two bidders requested amendments to the contract before the auction, so we were expecting perhaps three to four bidders. To more than triple this number of bidders was amazing, and it’s mostly attributable to the removal of the threats to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount following the retention of the federal government on May 18.”
He said a first-time rentvestor secured the apartment, and investors represented around 30 per cent of all enquiries.
“Before the election, there were no investors in the Lower North Shore market,” Mr Houghton said.
“There’s pent-up demand for properties in [the area] as people were waiting to see how the election panned out.”
He also said the interest rate cut has kept the market’s newfound confidence “rolling along”.
James Pratt Auctions International CEO James Pratt, who successfully sold the apartment, said he is seeing the same trend.
“Buyers are showing more motivation at auction since the election and registration numbers have improved by as much as 30 per cent in some Sydney suburbs.
“Last weekend, we had an auction clearance rate at 66 per cent, which is the highest since the start of winter 2018.”
In Sydney’s southwest, sales manager at Raine & Horne St Marys Peter Diamantidis said he has been “flooded” with requests.
“We sold seven properties in the first week after the election and seven last week. It was lucky if we sold 10 properties a month before the election,” Mr Diamantidis said.
“Apart from the election result, our buyers are being contacted by their brokers in the wake of APRA’s calls for lenders to scrap the 7 per cent mortgage interest rate test.
“Consequently, for some properties we are attracting as many as 18 groups to open homes, whereas before the election buyers were very thin on the ground.”
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